Charlie Hunnam’s King Arthur Revealed

On the list of men that I’m bitter towards and immensely jealous of, Charlie Hunnam’s up there. He can grow a blond beard like a Viking, he had his own biker club at one time, and now he’s set to play King flippin’ Arthur in a Guy Ritchie film. In reference to the legendary hero, Entertainment Weekly recently got the first look at his character in the upcoming Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur, complete with his iconic weapon of choice, Excalibur. Admittedly he’s not really putting much effort in the recent snaps in terms of righting wrongs, or upholding justice – but if you need someone to lie down in a boat and look on in wonder, he’s your man.

Joined by the likes of Jude Law, Eric Bana and Djimon Honsou, Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur, will work from the Thomas Mallory’s ‘Le Morte d’Arthur’, written in 1485. A hero whose lines have blurred between fact and fiction, Arthur was a real knight who defended the British against the Saxons, before Merlin and swords from stones got added into the mix, something that Ritchie will undoubtedly keep in this piece.

Speaking to EW, the man behind The Man From U.N.C.L.E. explained what has gone wrong with earlier interpretations of the character and what he intends to do to rectify that. “I think where the pitfall has often been is trying to make King Arthur bland and nice, and nice and bland,” says Ritchie. “The two qualities make rather compatible bed companions. Unfortunately, they’re not interesting to watch. Luke Skywalker was always the most uninteresting character in Star Wars because he’s the good guy. Good guys are boring.

No stranger to giving prim and proper characters an edge (see fist-throwing great detective, Sherlock Holmes), the films star Charlie Hunnam also had some input on where the knight will be heading.

“He’s a little bit rough around the edges, but he’s basically a survivor. He’s a hustler. He’s a street kid. There’s definitely a harder edge to him than people would imagine. It’s sort of classic Guy Ritchie stuff.”

So Bullet-Tooth Tony meets Aladdin? Yeah, sure whatever. Our only hope is that when Arthur does arrive they’ve mastered him, particularly considering that they’ve got plans for him to appear in six-instalments. Let’s get the first one out the way, eh boys?

Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur will be drawing its sword July 22, 2016.